Like My Father Before Me
by PlatoDan
Summary: Luke ponders his life as the imperial prince, having been found at a young age by Vader. LukeVader Vignette. Dark and Angsty. Contains Character Death.


**Title**: Like My Father before Me   
**Author**(s): PlatoDan  
**Timeframe**: Very AU, and not real important... But Pre-ANH as Luke is about 17.   
**Characters**: Luke Skywalker   
**Genre**: Vignette, AU, Introspection, and a bit of general teenage angst...  
**Keywords**: Character Death, Dark, AU, Luke/Vader   
**Summary**: Luke ponders his life as the imperial prince, having been found at a young age by Vader.  
**Notes**: This is a short little viggie that came to me last night at 2 AM. Thank **Koori **for her wonderful beta as well as for indexing this fic!  
**Disclaimer**: Obviously I own this entire franchise...  
**WARNINGS **This fic is dark and contains character death. Nothing graphic, but it's not for the faint of heart...

* * *

I sit awake at night brooding about how bad my life is, knowing that my father is who he is. Knowing what he is. Knowing what he wants me to become. 

I know this because my father has told me. He laid out his grand scheme of my life in front of my very eyes. Tales of riches and power that will come when I get older. How he has raised me to be something I'm not, and can never be.

I hate him for it.

I want to live the way I choose. I don't want the rules and stipulations that come with being third in line to the throne. I just want to be a normal person, not some uber-prince with a god complex.

What he really wants is to know that he isn't odd. That he wasn't an anomaly; that by raising me in his own image I validate something in him that no one can ever take away. The fact that he was right; in his own warped and twisted sense that he did the right thing.

All those terrible things that he has told me, boasted to me: how he marched on the Jedi Temple, slaying and butchering innocents, killing the crazy hermit Ben Kenobi before he took me away from Tatooine. All this becomes even more cemented in his head if I become him.

Unfortunately only a small part of me realizes this. Most of me wants the power. Wants the glory. Wants the eternal life that he offers.

But inside of me there is a rebellion, my inner farmboy, as Mara would say, is peaking out through the billowing darkness that has fallen over my heart, soul and mind.

I am lost. I feel it inside me, but I hide it. I hide it so well, my father only sees the loyal Imperial Prince. He sees what he wants, and ignores the rest.

This has worked to my advantage since I knew the rules to his game. I lock my feelings up tight, hide them. Act the way he feels I should. I'm proper, I make him proud. The Emperor is even pleased by me, or as pleased as the shriveled old thing can be.

I just don't know sometimes. Maybe I was raised poorly, nay wrong, before I was found. Maybe I only think I don't know why things happen, or the reason the universe is as it is. Maybe _he _is right.

But then I ask myself how it could possibly be so. How could murder and subjugation of the galaxy be the right things to do?

There I go again, right and wrong. Who am I to decide what's right and what's wrong? That's the Emperor's job.

Or so the part of me that wants the power whispers. But I don't care about the power. I don't seek control, I only want to feel again. I haven't really felt since Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru were killed. Part of me became cold that day and I haven't felt the same since.

I've tried asking why that was, but my questions on that subject either get me a beating or an angry glare from my father. I'm not sure which is worse really, my father's anger is bad enough.

A Mon Calamari Cyclone hitting me at full force would frighten me less; he is dark. Well he's always dark, that's in his job description. But he feels dark. When I reach out with the Force I feel nothing good. Only hatred. Only death.

Pondering the question of what I lost I come to the conclusion that it is love. Love. The feeling that the Jedi feared. That the Ancient Sith tried to harness but failed. Love is an emotion that I have become incapable of feeling.

Or am I? Maybe after all these years of living with a Dark Lord, I still crave something he can never give me. Something born of the light.

That's an interesting thought. I can have anything in the galaxy. But all I want is his love.

* * *

**Holonet news the next day:**

Imperial Prince Dead

_The Emperor released a statement today announcing the death of the Imperial Prince. The 17 year old son of Lord Vader was introduced to society's eye 8 years ago after being raised in seclusion._

_His body was found forty-two levels below the window of his suit in Lord Vader's palace. There were no signs of struggle detected and Coruscant Security's preliminary findings do not point to suicide, however a servant, discovered as a rebel spy just this morning, claimed to see him jump._

_The Emperor's Press Secretary announced that there are no solid indicators that his death was suicide, and that the death was more then likely accidental._

_Since coming into the public eye the Imperial Prince has made few public appearances, and those that he has have been in the presence of Lord Vader._

_Regardless of this, the Prince was well loved by the citizenry and will be sorely missed._

_Our thoughts and prayers are with Lord Vader this evening during this time of grief, and we know that whoever committed this atrocious crime will pay. _


End file.
